Why does your post purchase strategy matter? Well, according to Adobe’s 2021 Digital Economy Index, 41% of an eCommerce store’s revenue comes from just 8% of its customers.That profitable 8% are the ones invested in and loyal to your brand, and that loyalty all comes down to the experience they have - not just until the point of purchase, but for the entire customer lifecycle.
And it's not just the value of retention you stand to gain either. If you continue to engage in the right way, you can leverage the power of both customer advocacy and customer insight. So here’s five techniques for a more profitable post purchase strategy.
Bar any transactional emails, a review request will likely be your first post purchase touchpoint, so you need to get it right. Instead of a generic approach, use conditional sending triggers and time delays to automate personalised review request sequences. You can do this using an integration with an ESP like Klaviyo, or through our very own Flow collection tool.
What the latter allows you to do is be very specific with your invitation to make sure it lands at the opportune moment in the customer journey. You can set different time delays for different products, and even use a customer’s geographical location to determine when a request is sent - catering for international shipping times and varying time zones.
It also allows you to A/B test different campaigns, so you can easily see which variables contribute to better post purchase communication (and ultimately land you more reviews). It’s a strategy put to good use by Adam Lindsay, founder of one of the world’s largest sustainable cleaning brands, KOH.
Using Flow, you can also trigger strategic follow ups based on review data. So for example, if a review comes in of three stars or below, you can salvage the customer relationship with a carefully considered support email. Follow ups can also be designed to leverage positive feedback, which leads us to technique no. 2.
When a five star review comes in, you have an opportunity to encourage powerful brand advocacy. The customer behind that review has already proven themselves a fan of your products, so will be more inclined to provide you with additional content. And the most valuable form of content you can gather is user generated video.
These engaging, visual reviews have very much followed the trend of short form video, and capture on camera a product experience with real selling power. To help you collect more of them, we’ve introduced Video First - a feature that also brings a personal touch to your post purchase strategy.
With a Video First campaign, you create your own video message, essentially having a brand representative talk directly to the recipient. That creates a connection that you simply can’t achieve through a standard email. You can also include a tips video that walks the customer through how to leave a strong video review, so you’ll get quality content. If you want to turn a happy first time buyer into a loyal brand advocate, a Video First campaign is a good place to start.
But don't just take our word for it! Fraser Cottrell founder of Fraggell Productions a leading video ad agency, gives his take on Video First.
Do you know where your customers come from? Or how they interact on your site when they arrive? Do you know what prompts them to convert, or causes friction in the process? It’s something that’s too often overlooked in the post purchase phase, but if you’re not focusing on attribution data you’ve really got no way of knowing what works and what doesn’t - and as a result, no way of knowing how to do better.
FullPicture.io is an eCommerce analytics platform that gives you actionable data on the user experience, as well as the tools to gather first hand insight through custom post purchase surveys. By designing these surveys around the specific needs of your business, you can significantly improve acquisition and conversion rates by focusing on what drives results. It’s a way of improving the buyer journey from the buyer perspective.
"Full Picture has provided an important layer of transparency to our business. Their simple post-purchase survey tool helps us to better understand how customers are finding us, and address any challenges that they had with the checkout process on our website. I really like that it combines a lot of the tools that we were using separate apps for previously into one easy-to-use dashboard that we can access easily within our Shopify store. The customer support team has always been top-notch and quick to help us out when we have any questions."
Chris - CEO Lyfe Fuel
Remember that 8% of customers from whom a large chunk of your revenue stems? Well if there’s one way to build on that statistic (and its associated sales) it’s with a loyalty programme. Consumers today look for more than a good reputation in the brands they buy from. They want to feel part of a community and be recognised for their custom, and they’ve come to view rewards and membership programmes as an important part of their post purchase experience.
It's been a critical part of the strategy for REVIEWS.io customer Pipersfarm as Head of Ecommerce Shaun Loughlin highlights:
Whether it’s a referral scheme, points awarded per purchase, or loyalty based discount codes, if you’re not offering some form of retention incentive you’ll lose business to brands that are. There’s plenty of decent loyalty platforms out there, but if you’re looking for an affordable solution that integrates perfectly with REVIEWS.io (and is just as user friendly) check out our own loyalty offering, Influence.io.
This is a point we repeatedly emphasise to our customers - negative reviews might be a bit rubbish, but they’re not the enemy. In fact, they can prove an incredibly valuable part of a post purchase strategy. Firstly, think of all the data that exists within them. Is a negative review the result of a product flaw? Are there problems with your delivery partner? Is it a pricing issue? By tracking negative review sentiment you get access to information you’d be oblivious to without them.
Secondly, they give you a great opportunity to show impeccable customer service by accepting responsibility and finding the best possible solution at speed. Provided it’s handled with care, even a 1* review can be turned around, and the reviewer transformed from a disgruntled complainant to part of that profitable 8%.
If you’re already a REVIEWS.io customer, you’ll know we’ve built a product designed for ease of use, but with all the features and functionality you’d expect from a market leading solution. Our loyalty and analytics platforms are built in just the same way, and together form part of a powerful eCommerce tech stack.
If you want any help setting up Flow or Video First campaigns - or want any more information on Influence.io and FullPicture.io - just get in touch with our support team. And if you’re not yet using our review solution, book yourself a free demonstration today.
